Stiles Versus the Sickness
by Airika Hana
Summary: Stiles isnt feeling so good, but as they say "if your going through hell, keep going " so he does, But will he get worse or is this just a simple flu bug?


This week's mythical creature of maniacal madness had been eluding the packs supposedly brilliant tracking skills leaving all the leg work up to stiles and his trusty laptop, though research was coming up short this time no fault of the seemingly endless Adderall-filled hour's stiles had spent. Eventually he gave up the battle, But sadly not making it to the comfortable haven of a bed and he crashed in his rickety old desk chair, head back, legs up and on the brink of falling off, he floated off into a fitful sleep.

Waking up stiff and sore all over, a feat stiles blamed on the awkward angle he slept in, He sat up, trying to stretch out the kinks he got from sleeping anywhere but a bed, only to be met by a sudden, sharp pain in the neck, Stiles reasoned that he'd cricked his neck once again and carefully got up and ready for school, hearing his dad already up, he went down the stairs carefully, because feeling like this he really didn't need his legs to rebel against his body again and send him flying ass over teakettle like the other week. He went into the kitchen and saw his dad at the table, eating what he's sure is most definitely not turkey bacon, with his files scattered over the table examining a photograph. Sitting down heavily at the table, resisting the urge to put his head down and hurt his neck more.

"What's up with you today then?" The sheriff asked, prepared for a tale of great woe and faked-flu's "science test?"  
"nothing" Stiles said, but not without a few ounces of self-pity pushed into the sentence  
"Not having breakfast i see" the sheriff mentioned lightly  
"Not feeling too hot" he answered truthfully  
"Alright, just take it easy, you're going to be late for school though Stiles so not to easy" he mentioned, before grabbing his folders and leaving for work

The drive to school took twice as long as usual for stiles, so did the walk to English though admittedly he

may have been procrastinating going to the English pop quiz, dragging himself to class anyway he sat sown in class and gently put his head in his hands and ignored the class around him hoping time would go quicker.

"Stiles, you alright?" he heard Danny whisper to his left" you look like crap" she states.  
"Feel like it too, Danny-boy" he replied drowsily, near falling asleep

"What's up?"  
"I have the flu, dude"

"alright...you should skip lacrosse tonight, I'll tell coach for you...feel better Stiles" he said assertively, sometimes Danny was too nice but on this occasion stiles was extremely grateful, he could face lacrosse, after Danny went back to his work, stiles went back to ignoring his, feeling the slight shivers he had send pangs through his neck.

Leaning his head on the locker stiles had a moment, simply enjoying the cool relief of the metal before being interrupted by another type of headache, though one he would forgive usually staring at him.

"What" He asked snarkily, not in to mood for the werewolf wonder pup's today.  
"You smell strange" Isaac murmured softly, seemingly confused, like he remembered the smell but not the source.

"Says the werewolf, I bet you all smell like fur and flea spray or something, not exactly normal is it" he replied snarkily, his mood heightening his usually sarcasm, something he'd probably regret later on but couldn't bring himself to care about now.  
"Whatever" He replied before seemingly vanishing, though stiles suspected he zoned out.

Giving up on the days aim to be educated ( read: have his already feeble self-confidence bashed) by the ever-loving , Stiles shoved the fallen items in his locker with a very "unique" organisation style and made a break for the school office to sign out sick assuming the school don't make him stay and suffer through science.

Thankfully the secretary took one look at him and practically threw the sick form at him, though he was too tired to care right now he would probably would later 'I'm not a zombie, anyway I've seen much better looking people to take a bite of anyway' He thought cynically. Filling in the details on the form which equated to writing and hoping they were right and legible.

Stiles wasn't sure if driving his baby in this state was the wisest idea, he could wreck his baby not to mention himself, so with shaky fingers he called the ever elusive Scott who was, yet again absent when Stiles needed him. He fired off a quick text at him and rested his head on the steering wheel for a few minutes hoping for a reply that never came, he was resolved to driving himself home now. The drive was only short but it felt like forever with having to turn his neck, if only minutely and feel that sharp, dreadful pain radiate down his spine and up into his throbbing head.

Stiles eventually pulled up into his drive, the drive seemed to have taken the last dregs of energy out of him, because he felt like he'd have to physically drag himself in the house and up the stairs to bed. Deciding against bringing the heavy school bag in, he rooted around in search for his keys but to no avail, remembering he'd taken it off to have another key cut as a certain moonstruck werewolf had lost it, and it was still in his pencil case he'd shoved in the locker. Not being able to face the drive there and back again he did the only thing he could think of, He got out his phone and he cried wolf.

"Derek, I need a favour he murmured resigned to a fate of definite begging and probable wall slamming from the usual sour lemon of a man.  
"No" He growled monotonously, which stiles honestly thought should constitute as a special skill.

"Come on Derek...I need your help" he pleaded, silence filled the phone line on the other end, he thought he'd hung up but could hear the rather creepy heavy breathing  
"please" he whispered, his own voice hurting his head at this point, though admittedly not for the first time ever.

The quiet plea of please seemed to penetrate Derek's sour-shield and got through to him, he couldn't say no after that, Stiles sounded desperate and while Stiles was actually capable of asking for help, he like Derek would rather rip out there on throat than beg unless truly desperate, both times thankfully few and far between for both of them, so Derek resigned himself to helping stiles out with whatever whimsical fancy screwed things up this time.

"What do you need stiles" he asked resigned.  
"I left my key at school, I can't get in, could you climb through the window and let me in?"  
"Fine, but why aren't you in school?" he questioned

"Not feeling well" he replied "can you hurry up, I'm freezing" he asked, his teeth chattering slightly causing spasms of pain to radiate to what felt like everywhere.

"Fine" Derek grunted, before hanging up. Leaving stiles on his own for ten minutes, deciding against the trek back to his car, which wasn't even that far in all honesty, he slid down the wall and waited, rubbing his freezing hands together.

A long ten minutes later Derek pull's up onto the curb, and decides to let stiles in before waking him up, so sneaking into the easily unlocked ( practice makes perfect ) window, he checked and heard no heartbeats beside stiles so went down the stairs, unlocked the door and nudged stiles' foot

"Stiles, Wake up" he said loudly, rousing the drowsy boy slightly "think you can get up, you look sick and quite frankly smell disgusting" he stated watching the slow and failing progression of stiles trying to stand up, roughly grabbing his arm and dragging him up, hearing a small whimper from the boy, loosened his grip and gently helped him inside, stiles tripping a few times.

"Don't think i can get up the stairs, couch" stiles mumbled quietly, not that with his werewolf hearing he couldn't hear him, changing their path to the living room, stiles got rather dizzy and tripped over the doorstop, he would of landed hard, more hurt for his aching body, luckily Derek caught him around the midsection, though that triggered a rather unpleasant reaction.

"Derek, m'gonna be" was all he got out before he vomited, on the carpet, a near miss from Derek's jacket.  
"Ah stiles" he moaned, though he was getting increasingly concerned, this seemed worse than the flu, not that he'd know, werewolf immunity and all, hearing no answer from stiles who he was holding up, while he retched whatever breakfast he had out. "Stiles, hey...Stiles" He said sharply, putting him down away from the disgusting pile of vomit and stomach acid, he rolled stiles over, noticing his ghost white pallor and the minute shakes wracking his body he saw stiles had passed out, not good. Not good at all.

He shook stiles slightly hoping to wake the boy up, but all that got was a few moans and pain-filled whimpers, while shaking him he felt the heat radiating from the boy, feeling his head " Shit, Stiles your burning up" he mumbled to himself, a unusual habit he picked up from stiles slightly, while trying to get stiles to wake up, he noticed a small purple speckled rash peeking out of his red hoodie, along his collarbone, pulling the hoodie off gently, he looked at the rash which travelled the length of his collarbone and up his neck slightly, While he had never been sick since he was very little the Hales did have human pack members, he remembered a cousin having some serious rash like this, and something about it vanishing under a glass maybe?

Getting up, and darting quickly into the kitchen throwing open cabinets in hopes of finding a glass, he found them above the sink, grabbing one and getting back to stiles quickly, he noticed Stiles was shivering a lot more. It was hard to use the glass on the collarbone, so pressing the cold glass against stiles neck eliciting a small flinch from the cold against his hot skin, he saw the rash stay under the pressure, Derek didn't thing this was something he could deal with. Getting his phone out and Dialing 911, he got through to the operator and explained what happened, panic rising gradually with stiles temperature; she said an ambulance would be there within five minutes. Derek took off his jacket, and gently laid it over stiles in hopes of keeping him warm, mumbling slightly to fill the silence that was usually filled with banter and snarky comebacks from stiles and the rest of the pack.

the time passed slowly, he got up to unlock the door ready for the paramedic's, they rushed in talking quickly about blood pressure and temperatures and so much medical jargon his head was spinning, all he could focus on was stiles heartbeat, that meant he was here, he wasn't gone yet. They were asking didn't answer, he was probably with Allison, So Derek picked up stiles phone, scrolled through the contacts and found the sheriff's cell phone

"Stiles, why are you calling me in school, is everything okay?" He asked, after answering  
"Sheriff, This is Derek hale, I'm sorry, stiles is really ill and there asking things i don't know the answer to, i didn't know anyone else to call" He said quickly, unusually jittery when he was often calm in tense situations, Passing the phone onto a paramedic who informed him of the situation he refocused his attention on stiles.

Derek drove behind the ambulance, running a red light to keep up, though he didn't think the sheriff would give him a ticket seeing as he just overtook him, sirens blazing. Pulling into the nearest space and near running into the ER he caught up with the sheriff in time to hear about Stiles condition.

" your son has contracted meningitis, an inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord, also Septicaemia, the blood poisoning form of this disease. We believed this to be the diagnoses, However, the rash confirms it, it's a deadly disease usually seen in babies and children, you're lucky you found him so early, a hour or so later and he could be dead, we're working to bring down his temperature and stabilise him properly before we allow visitors, do you have any questions?"

"Derek, Derek Hale found him not me, where could he have got it from though?" he asked, though he seemed to be in a daze, Derek gently manoeuvred the shocked man into a hospital chair and nodded thanks at the doctor before the man rushed off.

They sat in shocked silence for over an hour waiting on news of stiles, both too worried and uncomfortable to make unnecessary small talk; he used to appreciate the quiet when stiles had left. But he admits, he doesn't like the silence when there's the risk of stiles not being there to fill it with inane babble.

The nurse came by, telling them they most likely wouldn't be able to see stiles till morning, and to go home and get a good night's rest, they both refused to leave though.

"He doesn't like hospitals" the sheriff said quietly after she'd gone "not since his mother, I don't want him waking up alone" he near whispered  
Derek was about to reply when the door was opened loudly, Scott rushing in with Isaac

"Where's Stiles?" Scott demanded from Derek, before catching site of the Sheriff, straightening and calming down slightly he focused his question on the sheriff this time "What happened, all I was told was Stiles got put in a ambulance?" he asked, calmer this time

"They say Stiles has meningitis, they're with him now, how did you find out?" he asked, the questioning of the sheriff, still there even if off duty.

"I went by after school, he didn't really look well and I had a free anyway so…anyway I saw the ambulance pull off" Isaac said, finally speaking up

Derek hadn't noticed this, He hadn't smelt him, or seen him, his senses let him down this time. He couldn't let that happen again it could spell disaster, though that was a thought for another day he had bigger things on his mind right now.

"Oh, okay" The sheriff said, falling short of a longer response, Derek cut in "you should sit down , we may be waiting a while" he near growled, never happy with waiting on the wellbeing of pack.

So they did, Scott and Isaac were the first of the pack to show up but not the last, the rest showed up quickly, in two's strangely, first came Erica and Boyd, Isaac texting them first before letting the others know, then Jackson and Lydia who were told by Scott, came in and sat down, all taking quiet comfort from each other.

Erica, Boyd and Isaac sitting on the floor in order to squeeze together, though that effort was mainly Erica and Isaac, Boyd was his usual stoic self, you could see he was worried just as much as his other Beta's since he was routinely rubbing his lucky Zamboni keying.

Scott had relocated to the Sheriff's side, trying to comfort the man awkwardly every once I a while, though personally he though Scott probably needed the comfort to, he guessed he was focusing all his efforts on helping someone else, and practicing the age old, and stiles personal favourite method of dealing with a situation "ignoring it till it went away" Though At some point Allison had slipped in quietly and started murmuring comforts to Scott every so often, He looked a lot calmer now actually.

Jackson was comforting Lydia in the waiting room sofa who was making quiet sniffling rounds and nuzzling Jackson every once in a while , Jackson himself didn't look particularly upset, but his hair was more dishevelled than usual, most likely meaning he'd spent about 5 minutes dealing with it all, pacing and running his hand though his hair like he does when stressed, then carried on and comforted Lydia, Him and Stiles were close but they weren't enemies like they used to, especially since they bonded over their mutual frustration over angry birds.

Eventually the same doctor from before came back and took the sheriff off to speak in private, not that that made any difference to the werewolves in the room.  
" , your son is stable, though not conscious, we've managed to bring his temperature down and medicate him, he's not out of the wood's for definite but I believe he will make a full recovery soon enough, You may see him now, though no more than two at a time" and with that he was off again, his white coat whirling behind him as the Sheriff relayed the information to the pack.

They all took their turns seeing Stiles before leaving, Erica and Boyd went in together, as did Isaac and Scott, Lydia and Allison and Derek and Jackson, though the latter spent five minutes in awkward and stoic silence, and then last but not least the Sheriff, who was shocked at the state of his son.

Stiles lay still in the bed that was shocking enough however his pallor was nearly the same colour as the sheets with purple bruises under his eyes and cracked lips, with tubes coming out of places he'd rather not think about on his son. He waited, hoping stiles would wake up, but he was eventually made to leave, not without a fight mind you.

Derek remembered what the Sheriff said about Stiles hating hospital, and waited till it was quiet before using his "creeper skills" as Stiles would say, to climb through the window and keep Stiles Company though occasionally he had to dodge out the window to avoid the odd nurses coming in and out to check on Stiles. He didn't wake up till come dawn and even then he was still drowsy and not exactly lucid but he was awake, and he was alive.  
"Derek?" He slurred out, from tiredness or medications he did not know.

"Yeah Stiles?" He replied, not sure if stiles were really awake

"What happened? Why am I here?" he asked, the slur getting less noticeable but still there

"You have meningitis, though they say you'll be okay" he replied quietly, mindful of Stiles probable headache.

"Meningitis, seriously but that's like…Major stuff, Oh my god, they said it would be okay though right, it will be okay? " He asked, needing to confirmation that he'd be okay and wouldn't be leaving his dad and everyone else alone if he kicked the bucket, his worry for his dad probably outweighing his own, again with the ignoring the problem method, no wonder Stiles and Scott were friends.

"Yeah, It'll be okay Stiles" he replied, watching as Stiles eventually fell back to sleep, the medication, and sickness exhausting him once again.

_Because with stiles there, it's going to be okay_


End file.
